Marco Penge carded a seven under par 65 to take the early lead at the Danish Golf Championship, with 2023 winner Rasmus Højgaard leading the home charge just two strokes behind.
Related: Grant Forrest turns around season with Nexo Championship title
The Englishman set the early clubhouse lead after completing his first round at Furesø Golf Klub in the morning, carding five birdies and an eagle in his bogey-free effort.
The 27-year-old, who won his maiden DP World Tour title at the Hainan Classic earlier this year, is currently third on the Closing Swing Rankings and a strong performance this week could see him earn a $200,000 bonus if he ends the week at the top of the standings.
View this post on Instagram
Højgaard is joined in a share of second by 2018 Open Champion Francesco Molinari, who carded his lowest round of the DP World Tour season, Canadian Aaron Cockerill, Jeremy Paul of Germany and Scotsman Marc Warren.
Last year’s runner-up Lucas Bjerregaard sits in a share of seventh alongside six others, including fellow Dane Jeppe Kristian Andersen.
View this post on Instagram
Nicolai Højgaard had a round to remember as he spectacularly holed out for eagle twice in the space of three holes. Playing in the group ahead of twin brother Rasmus, Nicolai was two over par through ten holes before he holed out from 111 yards on the par four 12th. Two holes later at the 14th, he made his second eagle of the day, this time holing out from 144 yards. He then birdied the last to sign for a three under par 68 and a share of 14th place.
View this post on Instagram
Player Quotes
Marco Penge: “I was a bit disappointed after last week with how I executed my rounds of golf. I had a good chat with the team over the last couple of days to try and correct that. Today was a good example of that.
“It’s an inland Parkland, which I like. Similar to back home in England. A little fiddly in places. It’s a really good test of golf, especially the back nine. You can’t afford to hit it offline. Luckily I didn’t miss a shot for the whole round. There’s a score out there, but you have to play really well. I think you’ll see that in the scoring, it’ll be quite separated. I enjoyed playing some good golf again and executing my shots how I saw it before I pulled the trigger. You don’t have many days like that. I’m going to end up in some trouble at some point this week, I’m glad I got through 18 holes without being in that trouble, so we’ll see how we go over the next three days.”
